Free Republic

Although the wealthy can and should be expected to make larger sacrifices than the middle class, it's vanishingly unlikely that any plan serious enough to slow global warming will leave the bulk of Americans financially untouched. But if Americans are going to be asked to engage in a war on climate change, they should understand the material and economic sacrifices that will be required of them. The best way to do this is to look at an ambitious, well-crafted climate plan like the one put forward by Washington Governor Jay Inslee. **SNIP** Much of this could be financed with taxes...

Jay Inslee would be disappointed. It seems just as soon as the Washington governor abandoned the 2020 election, the Democratic Party abandoned his climate change agenda. At a Democratic National Committee meeting in San Francisco over the weekend, party leadership voted down a plan to hold a climate-centered presidential debate. As you can see, climate activists were bitter - and vocal - about it. Party delegates voted 222 to 137 against allowing candidates to participate in a debate dedicated to the topic, after a heated floor fight interrupted by protesters chanting “We can’t wait!” and “Failure of leadership!” The bitter...

A tense hearing over border detention practices erupted into a shouting match between former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director Thomas Homan and Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., as Homan grew frustrated in his attempts to defend his former agency. Jayapal, the vice chairwoman of the House Judiciary Immigration and Citizenship Subcommittee, repeatedly cut off Homan for exceeding his allotted time. It started when the former ICE director responded to a previous statement Jayapal made about the Trump administration's use of funding for additional detention beds. "I'd like to remind you, under the Obama administration we did that most of the...

**SNIP** People with diabetes can be weakened by dehydration, as it inhibits the absorption of insulin. Dehydration also increases the likelihood of kidney harm or kidney stones, putting those with kidney disease at greater risk of weather-related harm. Plants are producing more pollen because of increased levels of carbon monoxide in the air, prolonging allergy season. Increased carbon dioxide reduces nutrients in the plants we eat. Greenhouse gases chew away at the ozone, leading to an increased risk of skin cancer. **SNIP** In an effort to blunt the impact of heat and smoke this past summer, the city of Seattle...

Washington state's attorney general sued President Donald Trump on Thursday over his plan to shift more than $3.6 billion in military construction funding to help build a border wall. In Washington state, Trump's plan would divert $89 million from a pier project at a submarine base west of Seattle. State Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court against Trump and other administration officials, saying it was a "misuse of his presidential emergency powers to accomplish an ideological political goal." The cuts stemmed from a Feb. 15 declaration by Trump that a national emergency exists at the...

The Overcomer I've pushed through the wings and stepped onto the Throne, I AM now with The LORD never alone, Vanquished the flesh across the Threshing Floor, Now Heaven is open as never before, The Eyes of Understanding now cover me, For now it is through His eyes I see, The wings represent the rest I now know, For now as Enoch it is with The LORD that I go . . .

n a major win for the Trump administration, the Supreme Court issued an order late Wednesday ending all injunctions that had blocked the White House's ban on asylum for anyone trying to enter the U.S. by traveling through a third country, such as Mexico, without seeking protection there. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals – long a liberal bastion that has been aggressively reshaped into a more moderate court by the Trump administration – handed the White House a partial victory in the case on Monday by ending the nationwide injunction. But the 9th Circuit kept the injunction alive within...

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – A piece of the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier will serve another 25 years in the Navy. The former Enterprise carrier (CVN 65) was decommissioned in 2017 after several years of inactivation work was completed at Newport News Shipbuilding. Now one of the anchors from the Enterprise has been installed on another aircraft carrier, the USS George Washington. That ship just reached the midway point of its midlife Refueling and Complex Overhaul (RCOH) at Newport News Shipbuilding. During the overhaul process, shipbuilders inspecting the Washington found that one anchor on the carrier needed to be replaced....

A gunman who opened fire inside a Walmart in Washington state and injured at least two people during carjacking attempts was fatally shot by one of two armed civilians on Sunday evening, according to police. The Thurston County coroner identified the dead suspect as Tim O. Day, 44, though police said they were still piecing together the full story of what happened at the Tumwater, Wash. Walmart. About 5 p.m. Pacific Time, authorities received a call about a possibly drunk driver heading the wrong way on a main road near a local high school, said Laura Wohl, Tumwater police public...

A Washington state police chief who took a stand in refusing to enforce elements of the state’s widely encompassing new gun control package is now running for Governor of the state. He’s making a pledge to restore the gun rights of Washingtonians a central message of his campaign. Loren Culp is the police chief of Republic, Washington. He was praised by gun owners and vilified by liberal prosecutors for his constitutional refusal to enforce parts of a massive gun control law enacted in 2018.

Gridlock on America’s roadways is increasing, according to the 2019 Urban Mobility Report published by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute – in part due to job growth that is “exacerbating” the nation’s traffic woes. As a result, over that 26-year period from 1982 to 2018: The number of hours per commuter lost to traffic delay has nearly tripled, climbing to 54 hours a year. The annual cost of that delay per commuter has nearly doubled to $1,010. The nationwide cost of gridlock has grown more than tenfold to $166 billion a year. The amount of fuel wasted sitting in stalled...

BOISE, Idaho — More than 1,100 sea lions could be killed annually along a stretch of the Columbia River on the Oregon-Washington border to boost faltering populations of salmon and steelhead, federal officials said Friday. The National Marine Fisheries Service said it’s taking public comments through Oct. 29 on the plan requested by Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Native American tribes. The agency says billions of dollars on habitat restoration, fish passage at dams and other efforts have been spent in the three states in the last several decades to save 13 species of Columbia Basin salmon and steelhead protected under...

The controversial way America elects presidents is barreling toward a crisis point. A federal court ruling has spotlighted the confounding nature of the system, which twice in the last five elections put presidents into office against the wishes of the majority of American voters. Under the Constitution, the voters who select a president every four years are, in fact, picking a party-chosen slate of electors pledged to that candidate. The presidential candidate who wins a state’s popular vote gets all its electors — except in Nebraska and Maine, which split the electors by Congressional districts. These electors formally select the...

Police say a man in Washington reported his truck was stolen — as he happened to be nearby allegedly robbing a store himself. William Kelley called authorities on Sunday around 6 a.m. to report that he left his keys on the seat of his red 1992 Chevrolet pickup truck in Kennewick, a city roughly 140 miles southwest of Spokane, and "someone just stole it." Kelley said he saw a man riding a bicycle who "discovered the keys and then threw his back bike in the bed of the truck and fled," according to a Facebook post from the Kennewick Police...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) campaign said roughly 15,000 people attended her rally in Seattle on Sunday night. The top-tier Democratic presidential candidate has seen large crowds in recent weeks, with an event in St. Paul, Minn., last week drawing about 12,000, according to her campaign. Her event Sunday had to move locations from the WaMu Theater, with a capacity of 7,000, to the International Fountain at Seattle Center in order to accommodate more people. Warren billed her event Sunday as the “Seattle Town Hall,” and it was her first in Washington since launching her campaign. A spokesperson for Warren’s campaign...

Last week, I was very critical of the 13-year-old girl who spray-painted Seattle City Hall in the name of climate change with an activist group. I said that I didn’t understand how parents could allow their kids to be used by these climate zealots.(snip) As I always try to do when I criticize people, I invited the girl and her mom to come on the show.(snip) The girl’s mom is very upset because of what I said,(snip) Here’s my frustration. The reason this 13-year-old girl was in the news was because the climate activists with whom she was working recorded...

Trailing badly in the polls and in fund-raising for 2020, Mayor Bill de Blasio hopes that an hour on CNN Sunday before the nation’s voters can change his standing. He’s entrenched toward the rear in fund-raising totals. He rejects the validity of the various polls showing him at zero percent. And he also acknowledges that he will probably not qualify for the third Democratic presidential debate next month. Yet Mayor Bill de Blasio refuses to “accept the premise” of questions about the wisdom of his continued candidacy, even as other candidates who shared his political standing, like Gov. Jay Inslee...

RUSH: So the onslaught continues in the Drive-By Media’s incoherent attack, popularized by Laurence Tribe now claiming that Trump wants to reverse the outcome of the Civil War. But the truth of the matter, ladies and gentlemen… The truth of the matter is on the other side of the aisle. Here’s a little story that will never show up in the Drive-By Media. Stephen Green, PJ Media. “Democrats Seemed Bored with Their Presidential Candidates.” You know it’s bad when Joe Biden’s brain surgeon has to come out and assure everybody that Biden’s brain is okay despite the fact he doesn’t...

Well, that's the end of the road for presidential candidate John Hicklenlooper. But it's just the beginning for Senate candidate John Hickenlooper. The former Colorado governor gave it his best shot but never exceeded an average of 1 percent national support in his 2020 campaign. The press repeatedly asked him why he was running for the White House and not the Senate, where he could be much more influential, but he insisted Congress wasn't for him. “I’m not cut out to be a senator,” Hickenlooper said in February. “Senators don’t build teams. Senators sit and debate in small groups, which is...

BAILEY, Colo.- The search for a mountain lion continues after it attacked an 8-year-old boy in Bailey Wednesday night. Colorado Parks and Wildlife says the child was playing on a trampoline in his yard when he heard a friend calling from down the street. As he ran towards his friend's home, the mountain lion pounced, grabbing the boy by the head. The boy's brother was also outside and heard a commotion. He ran to his father and told him something didn't sound right. His father rushed down the street and found the mountain lion on top of his son. The...